Two more hospitals were dragged into the NHS care scandal today as it emerged
that 18 families were taking legal action on the grounds that their loved
ones had suffered neglect and negligence.

The relatives of nine patients who were treated at Queen’s Hospital in Romford, Essex and nine who were treated at Eastbourne District General Hospital, East Sussex, have instructed lawyers to pursue their claims, according to Radio 4’s Today programme.

They allege that the treatment received at each hospital amounted to a breach of their human rights and in some cases, may have contributed to their deaths.

The claims follow the publication of a devastating report into the crisis at Mid Staffordshire, where up to 1,200 people died needlessly. An investigation has also been launched into excessive mortality rates at five other NHS trusts.

Dot Roast, 67, from Rainham, east London, said her husband Ronald had not been fed properly and that his drip had not worked after he was admitted to Queen’s Hospital in October 2011.

She said her 69-year-old husband, who had suffered several heart attacks and had advanced cancer, had to wait several hours to see a doctor and was without a drip for more than 12 hours. He died later from lung cancer in a hospice.

Her daughter, Maria Lloyd, claimed that because he was dying, medical staff had simply appeared not to care.

“It was just awful,” she said. “The nurses who were changing him left the curtains open and hadn’t covered him up properly.

“There was just no dignity. He was dying but you can’t treat people like that. At the end of the day if you go into hospital you expect to be treated with respect and dignity. I thought we had gone back to the 1800s.”

Robin Tilbury’s mother Patricia, 85, died at Eastbourne District General in November 2011. She had cancer and had been admitted with malnutrition.

Mr Tilbury said he believed she had been denied vital nutrition supplements and had not been monitored “in any way”.

Emma Jones, a human rights lawyer with solicitors Leigh Day & Co, said: “We are talking about people who have been left without hydration, who haven’t been given food, whose medication has been missed. Many care issues.

“We are talking about people who are often elderly, they are vulnerable and I can understand completely why relatives of their loved ones would believe that such poor treatment and care might have contributed to their death.

Four people have so far officially submitted claims, according to the report.

The East Sussex Healthcare Trust confirmed that it had received two claims under the Human Rights Act. The trust had 334 excessive deaths recorded for July 2010-12

A spokesman from Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust apologised to patients and families. Both trusts insisted that lessons had been learnt. The trust had no excessive deaths recorded for July 2010-12